Tyson Summers was hired by Tom Kleinlein presumably because of his potential for loyalty and his defensive pedigree at UCF and Colorado State. With all the struggles that the offense had last year stealing the spotlight, it was easy to forget about the defense. Gone are LBs Ukeme Eligwe (Chiefs) and Ironhead Gallon (Cardinals) to the NFL. Also gone are: LB William Bussey, CB Darius Jones, DE Bernard Dawson, and DTs Jay Ellison and Jonathan Battle. Special Teams lost Lou Groza finalist Young-Hoe Koo. But even with guys mentioned above, the defense was only mediocre:
52nd in Scoring Defense - 26.5 ppg
58th in Rushing Defense - 167.1 ypg
69th in Passing Defense - 229.5 ypg
58th in Total Defense - 396.6 ypg
54th in Turnover Margin - +1
124th in Sacks - 11
Ironhead Gallon and Ukeme Eligwe were elite defensive players on an otherwise bad defense. They made up for a lot of mistakes. They will be missed. Is there reason for hope? Well, yes and it goes like this:
1. Chris DeLaRosa/Logan Hunt/Darrius Sapp - the three returning starters on the front seven must have big seasons and guide the younger guys. DeLaRosa, starting MLB, might be our best returning starter on defense.
2. Secondary - Most of the secondary returns and is very talented. Joshua Moon and Jay Bowdry are hard hitters back there while Jessie Liptrot and Monquavion Brinson are coming off of productive freshmen campaigns.
3. Tyson Summers - Most of Willie Fritz's recruits are gone. The defense is almost entirely made up of guys Tyson Summers recruited. His past two classes were highly ranked and defense-heavy. With Bryan Cook fixing the offense that should in theory allow Summers to spend more time with his bro Coach Zo and the defense.
Let's look at the depth chart:
*-Redshirt
DL
DE: Logan Hunt-JR, Deshon Cooper-JR, Traver Vliem-FR*, JB Kouassi- SO, Demetrice Lofton-FR, Brain Miller-FR
DT: Darrius Sapp-SR, Zack Copeland-JR, Ian Bush-JR, Ty Philips-SO, Chris Washington-SR, Shelby Townsend-JR
Logan Hunt and Darrius Sapp are the veteran anchors to the front four. Defensive coordinator Lorenzo Constantini added DL Coach to his list of responsibilities, something he has experience doing at UCF. He hopes to get more out of a unit that produced only 11 sacks all season in 2016. Traver Vliem and Deshon Cooper had productive springs while Zack Copeland, Ian Bush, and Chris Washington will vie for the starting job in camp opposite of Darrius Sapp.
LB
SLB: Todd Bradley-SO
MLB: Chris DeLaRosa-SR
WLB: Rashad Byrd-FR
Bench: Tomarcio Reese-JR, Randy Wade-FR, Ike Ukwu-SR, Jacory Belvin-JR, Alvin Ward-FR
Chris DeLaRosa is the anchor in the middle. He missed four games last season due to a high ankle sprain but looked healthy enough to represent the team at Sun Belt Media Days earlier this week. He's accompanied on his right and left by talented but inexperienced Todd Bradley and Rashad Byrd. Because of the nature of college football and the spread offense, outside linebackers have to be fast enough to cover the entire field. Rarely will three linebackers be deployed. The Weakside linebacker doubles as sort of nickelback. Bradley showed up to camp with a whole new body that everyone can't stop talking about. Rashad Byrd had a great spring and looks to be the frontrunner for that WLB/NB spot.
Secondary
CB: Jessie Liptrot-SO, Kindle Vildor-SO
SS: Jay Bowdry-SO, Martial Washington-FR*
FS: Joshua Moon-JR, Amari Thompson-FR*
CB: Monquavion Brinson-SO, Christian Matthew-SO
NB: RJ Murray-JR, Sean Freeman-JR
The strength of the defense was a weakness going into last season. But trial by fire has created quite a few gems. Bowdry and Moon are the bash brothers back there and will bring the pain over the middle. The group of Liptrot, Brinson, Vildor, and Matthew are as good as a young group of CBs in the conference. Christian Matthew in particular stands at 6-3 175 and can be deployed at CB, Nickel, or even Safety. Juco transfer Sean Freeman really came on last year when asked to. He and RJ Murray could vie with Matthew for the Nickelback spot.
Special Teams
K: Tyler Bass-SO, Luis Martinez-FR*
P: Matt Flynn-SR
KR: Malik Henry-JR, Myles Campbell-SR
PR: Myles Campbell-SR, Quan Howard-SO
LS: Colton Piatt-FR*, Logan Cox-FR, Ryan Langan-FR
Tyler Bass has big shoes to fill with Groza finalist Young-Hoe Koo moving onto the NFL (Chargers). Luis Martinez could factor in if Bass struggles, Bass only previously had kickoff duty. Flynn returns as the punter. A combination of Malik Henry, Myles Campbell, and Quan Howard will most likely split returning duties.
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